LAKEWOOD RANCH — After seven years of service, Carol Frankland is not going to run again for the Summerfield/Riverwalk Village Home- owner Association, leaving her seat open on the five-person board.
But in what could be a trend, no one has yet even tried to fill Frankland’s shoes.
Frankland’s seat is one of six that will be contested when the three Lakewood Ranch homeowner associations hold elections this month and in December.
So far, there don’t seem to be enough candidates to even fill all six seats, let alone have competition for any of them.
In Summerfield/Riverwalk, the five incumbent board members are Tom Cofer, Vicky Horswood, Shirley Surowiec, Marlene Van Pelt and Frankland.
Cofer and Frankland’s seats are up for reelection at 7 p.m. Nov. 19, and Cofer is running for re-election. But no one has come forward to challenge Cofer or run for Frankland’s soon-to-be vacant seat, said Cynthia Wills, director of community associations.
“It’s apathy,” said Frankland, who indicated it was just time for her to do something else. “They need to stop being apathetic. If no one runs for my seat, the board will have to appoint someone. I would hope that doesn’t happen.”
Homeowner association board members don’t get paid and are the ones who make sure the community deed restrictions are upheld and residents pay their annual dues.
When the dues are not paid, the homeowner association hires collection agencies and file liens to recover the funds.
Frankland was so determined to collect unpaid funds on her watch that the Summerfield/Riverwalk annual homeowner dues dropped for 2010 from $217 to $204, on the strength of collected back dues and fines.
The Country Club/Edgewater Village Association also is losing a strong president in 2010 as Jack Kerber, who served his two-year term, has also decided not to run again.
“It’s for personal reasons,” Kerber said.
The other incumbent board members in Country Club/Edgewater are Robert Thompson, Dave Kostura, Joe Sander and Jo Anne Dain.
Dain, like Kerber an at-large candidate, also is not going to run again, Kerber said.
Bill Mariotti and John Bryne are new candidates running for the two at-large seats in Country Club, Wills said. But there are no challengers for them as yet.
“It is likely they will win,” said Kerber, who doesn’t yet know the two new candidates.
“But no one knew me before I came on the board,” Kerber said.
The Country Club/Edgewater Village election follows the 1 p.m. board meeting on Nov. 10, Kerber said.
In Greenbrook, incumbents Carlene Smith and Joseph Sidiski have no competition as yet, Wills said.
Greenbrook’s board includes President Tom Headley and board members Rodney Beggs and Steve Balazic as well as Smith and Sidiski.
No one has filed to challenge Smith and Sidiski’s seats in the election, Wills said.
Sidiski feels the absence of challengers in homeowner association races may not point to apathy, but to contentment with current policies.
“I think our board has been moving in an appropriate direction and people are satisfied,” Sidiski said. “That’s my read. Maybe I am living in a dream world. But if people were unhappy, I think they would be coming out of the woodwork.”
Greenbrook’s homeowner association is scheduled to hold its elections at 6 p.m., Dec. 10.
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